


Two Birds

by RadioZap777



Category: How to Train Your Dragon (Movies), The Last Guardian (Video Game)
Genre: Coping with trauma, Crash Landings, Crossover, Friendship, My First AO3 Post, Unfinished
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-27
Updated: 2018-06-28
Packaged: 2019-03-24 15:08:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,535
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13813752
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RadioZap777/pseuds/RadioZap777
Summary: Two runaways, a beastly chimera and a dragon with the scales of the night, fall from the sky. The fall leaves scars on the both of them- in more ways then one. As they recover, their rulers search for them, and will not rest until their servants are returned.





	1. Wounded

  He still hadn’t said a word.

  After days of flying, the chimera was silent.

  The dragon fluttered his wings slightly. Why was the chimera refusing to speak? Had he even acknowledged him? Did he realize he’d been next to him for days, trying to have a friendly conversation? The dragon didn’t know, but he wasn’t going to press him for answers. He just wanted to understand, and had flown by him all this time.

  “So, uh… What’s your favorite food?” He asked, turning to the larger creature next to him. There was no answer, not even a reaction. The dragon huffed, looking back ahead of their flight path. “...It’s getting cloudy. Hope things don’t get too rainy… You know, can you fly in the rain?” Upon being answered with, again, silence, the dragon grew sheepish, wondering if he’d offended him. “Uh, you know, because of your feathers. Wouldn’t it be difficult to fly if they were soaking wet?”

  No answer, again. The dragon heard thunder rumble, and when rain drops began to fall, he turned back to the chimera. The water rolled off his wings like a duck’s feathers, but the rest of him got soaked. However, he wasn’t weighed down and continued flying with ease.

  “Guess that makes sense,” the dragon grumbled. He looked up to the sky, before catching a breeze just right on his wings to fall behind him. He was about to fly over the chimera - to use his wings (though said wings didn’t even rival the chimera’s wingspan) to guard the chimera’s body so if it rained more, he would not be weighed down eventually - when with an ear-splitting _CRACK_ , lightning burst in front of him and struck the chimera. Time seemed to slow down as the chimera screeched in pain - the first thing he’d ever hear from him - but was knocked out without skipping a beat and began to plummet down, and down, and down…

  The dragon, knowing he could not just leave him, divebombed after. The chimera’s limp body crashed into multiple cliff faces, and the dragon, with his careless, panicked flying, hit rock after rock until he was not flying, but falling.

  He lost his own consciousness when he felt a splitting pain on his tail fin.

* * *

 

  The dragon was never sure how long he had been out.

  He woke up laid on his side, tail fin still hurting like never before. But though it hurt, it felt… invisible. There was probably a better word for that, but all that came to his mind was “invisible.”

  Too weak to stand, he rose his head, and saw a gigantic beast standing over him- the chimera. His eyes were no longer glowing a piercing pink, but instead they looked almost like a cat’s, but instead of the pupil being slitted, they were round. The dragon noticed how what he’d assumed had been plates of bone on his head was truly armor of some kind, and it had been broken from the fall, and so had his horns, which had lost their teal glow. The dragon wondered how much pain the poor creature must be in after being struck by lightning and falling. All the dragon did was fall.

  “...Are you alright?” the chimera asked, and the dragon was surprised by his voice, after hearing nothing but silence from the chimera for days.

  “...Yes. Yes, I’m okay.”

  “Can you stand?”

  “...No. Everything hurts.”

  The chimera blinked, before cat like ears were pressed to the back of his head, seeming annoyed. “Then you’re not alright.”

  “...”

  The chimera sighed, before changing the topic. “I’m Savatok, but, please, call me Trico. What’s your name?”

  “Toothless.”

  “Alright.” Trico stood up, walking over to Toothless’s tail. Toothless turned around, seeing him inspect the wound he only now noticed- his tail fin had been torn completely off. Trico inspected it, before turning away from the two and pawing at his own face, managing to take the armor off so he could see better. He inspected it for a bit longer, before turning to Toothless. “The fin is torn completely off.”

  “I can tell. It hurts… Bad.”

  Trico looked at the wound, trying to think of a way to help. “Well… thankfully, it’s a clean cut. After what happened, you’d expect there to be remnants, but your tail is completely half-and-half now. I never was informed about how cuts work, but I believe I’ve heard clean cuts are less likely to be infected, so that’s a plus…”

  “Is it even a clean _cut_ , though? I mean. By definition.”

  “...I don’t know.”

  Toothless huffed, before trying to stand, earning surprise from Trico. “Nonono, don’t-” He was cut off when Toothless slipped after feeling a pain in his leg from the fall. “...Rush.”

  “...Sorry.”

  “It’s okay. Give it time to heal,” Trico asked, but made his way to look at Toothless’s leg. The dragon saw him flinch as he saw it. “That looks painful.”

  “What’d you expect?”

  “...It to look painful.”

  Toothless let out a soft laugh, despite the situation. “Well, can’t argue with that. How are you, though? You were the one struck by lightning.”

  Trico seemed surprised that he’d thought of him, but answered anyways. “Well, my wings are broken, which is the worst of it. However, my horns broke, which I suppose is a good thing. My tai-”

  “Nonono, back it up,” Toothless interrupted. “‘A good thing’?”

  The chimera paused, as if confused, before understanding. “Oh! The whole time you were flying by me, I was… under control, to say the least. The… The _thing_ controlling me, it controlled me by my horns. See how they have lost their glow?” He'd spat out the word "thing" like it were venomous.

  Toothless nodded with understanding. “I suppose that makes sense. Is your controller not the best ‘thing’?”

  Trico chuckled, shaking his head. “Goodness, no. I am relieved to be free of his control.”

  Toothless nodded again. “We dragons have our own alpha- the king of all dragonkind. The current alpha… He’s actually ever so gentle and kind, bless his heart. When I was younger - not a hatchling, but not an adult - I was… rambunctious. Having grown up in the mountain he had built with several other dragons, he himself sometimes had to control me as well to make me sit and calm down. Poor guy had to deal with so much, haha!”

  Trico laughed as well. “Have mercy on his soul! But you should get your rest, shouldn’t you? Once you have rested, you may feel well enough to walk."

  Toothless hesitated, and murmured nervously, “But I can’t fend for myself like this.”

  The chimera smiled warmly and asked:

  “Who said you would be left alone?”


	2. Forbidden Friendship

  And so, neither were alone.

  Toothless rested, and eventually, he could stand up without needing help from his new chimera friend. The two would work together to hunt, and taught each other about the cultures of chimeras and dragons.

  “So, you said you lived off of ‘Vitae’. What is that?”

  “Life essence,” Trico had answered Toothless. “That’s why I seem to eat so little when we hunt- I don’t necessarily eat the meat itself, but whatever remaining life the prey has. I can also eat it from other living things, such as plants.”

  “...And dragons?” Toothless had asked nervously.

  “Don’t worry, Toothless. I can’t eat anything bigger than my head.”

  They were much more different than either expected!

  “Toothless, you mentioned that there was one Alpha of the dragons, and that they can have total control over a dragon. Has there ever been an evil alpha, like my own ruler?”

  “Not many. Evil alphas tended to be defeated very quickly, though- Evil queens, however, are a different story.”

  “Evil  _ queens _ ?”

  “Yes. Though there is one alpha of dragon, every nest has its own queen. After I left Dragon Mountain, I strayed into an evil queen’s territory, and I was stuck under her control for quite some time. She wouldn’t let us make any friends - especially with non-dragons - and made us give most of our own food to her. Thankfully, I managed to fight against her power hard enough to escape. Then I met you.”

  “...How many dragons did she have?”

  “Probably two to five hundred. I haven’t returned, because if she is still in power, she will punish me for running from her.”

  “Those poor dragons…”

  “Indeed. I worry for them.”

  One night, they’d stared at the night sky, at the stars dappling it.

  “Back at Dragon Mountain,” Toothless had told Trico, “My caretaker had named the night sky and the day sky. The night was ‘Starscales’, and day, ‘Blueflight’.”

  “Starscales,” Trico echoed. “...The stars do look like shining scales.”

  “They do.”

  They sat in silence for a while, staring at the sky dusted with stars.

  “While I was controlled by the evil queen,” Toothless suddenly spoke up, gaining Trico’s attention once more, “Every few nights me and many other dragons were sent to attack a nearby viking tribe. I was well-known among dragons for blending in perfectly in the night- so I never landed during those attacks. As much as I hated having to burn house over house, when I had flown then, I felt… Free. But now… Now I’m sort of…  _ scared  _ to fly. What if it happens again?”

  “Toothless,” Trico began in a comforting tone. “Aren’t we far from the queen now? She can’t hurt you anymore. You’re safe.”

  “No, not her. I know we are far from her,” Toothless denied, and Trico realized how mutual the fear was when he spoke it:

  “What if I fall again?”

* * *

 

  And yet, they longed to fly again.

  Often, they would rest near a cliff together, almost always the same one, looking at the sky with clouds painted across it. Toothless occasionally joked that whoever had painted it was a brilliant artist. Sometimes, one would spread his wings, but when he looked down, fear overtook him and he’d step back before he even left the cliffside.

  The same cliff wasn’t the only time they’d found themselves longing for flight. They soon found just how much their lives were affected by it- Toothless, especially. It used to be that, when he’d hunt, he’d fly through the air, eagle-sharp eyes looking for prey and, when he’d find it, he’d dive down, crush it with his own weight to kill it quickly (it was unpleasant, but not many dragons eat plants), and yank it off the ground and find a place to eat, or to carry it to his queen. But he couldn’t do that anymore- not without flying. Often, he would go hungry, just because fear would overtake him when he wanted to fly. The fall had hurt so much- it was a fall he never wanted to experience again.

  But, nonetheless, one day, he approached him. Trico only saw his face, and knew what he was about to suggest.

  “What if we tried flying again?”


	3. Test Flight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> DGHSFGDS Sorry folks, completely forgot about this fic :( I'll try and keep it updated now! Also sorry it's so short.

  It had been only a little under a month since the fall.

  They met on the same cliff they met at every day. Behind them, a forest, and on a tree was two birds. Trico and Toothless watched as one fluttered its wings and soared off, the second bird watching, as if in amazement. Trico smiled at Toothless, volunteering to go first, and turned back to the cliff. He did not look down, but he instead spread his wings to their full wingspan, which was only a little less than around 100 feet in length. They could fold in to the point when they were almost fully hidden- but now, he was ready to fly again. His wings had healed from the fall.

  The chimera stepped back, but he was not backing down- not again. He took a deep breath and started running, but once he reached the edge of the cliff, he skidded to a halt, having accidentally looked down. He looked to Toothless, who smiled encouragingly. Trico took a deep breath and backed up once more. “This time. This time, for sure.” Closing his eyes, he started running again, flapping his wings as he did so. Suddenly, the ground was no longer beneath him. He was not falling.

  He opened his eyes. He flapped his wings a bit more, and he rose into the sky. All fears forgotten, he leaned backwards into a flip, nosediving for a split moment before righting himself and spiraling, higher, higher.

  He was flying.

  He turned to Toothless, who watched from the cliffside. His friend stood there with a gentle smile, and Trico thought for a moment he was going to join him. But then he saw the pain in his eyes, and realized with a pang that, despite his encouragement, maybe today was not the day he would fly again.

  After all, broken wings could heal - but the missing fin on Toothless’s tail would not.


	4. See You Tomorrow

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Double update, 'cause the last chapter was so short! Also, thank you for all the support so far- I didn't expect such a positive reaction! :)

  Trico had realized how much Toothless was doing for him, however. He wanted to help pay his friend back.

  Having noticed how he had trouble hunting without the power of flight, Trico began to hunt for him. Though Toothless insisted he didn’t have to, it didn’t change the fact that Trico could tell he was getting thinner every day, living off of fish like he did, and it worried him. Thus, he would always bring him his food for him, despite him asking him not to.

  But he knew that he had to try to get Toothless to fly again.

  “Toothless, don’t you know you can always join me in my flights?” Trico would ask. “It’s a little lonely, all by myself.”

  “...I… Maybe later,” he always answered, without fail.

  Trico would nod in understanding, but even then he’d try to beckon him into joining him during the flight.

  “C’mon, Toothless!” He’d call, zipping over his friend. “The weather is great~!”

  “It’s alright,” Toothless would answer, with a forced smile. “I’m tired,” he’d lie. “The weather may  _ feel _ nice, but the sky’s overcast. I’m sorry.”

  One day, when Toothless had answered this, Trico had enough. “You’re lying,” he finally said. “You’re scared, aren’t you?”

  Toothless had not answered.

  That night, when Trico went hunting, Toothless insisted he’d catch his own fish, and before Trico could ask why, he’d run off. Trico realized he was scared to speak to him because he was right, when he’d accused him of lying. Even when they slept that night, when they usually slept snuggled up to each other to stay warm, Toothless had said he wanted to sleep separately that night, though Trico knew Toothless would be the one who was cold, since he was a reptile. He’d shivered all throughout the night, and Trico longed to move closer so the dragon would stay warm.

  That morning, Trico confronted him almost the moment he woke up.

  “I’m sorry,” he’d begun. “I just… want to help you, Toothless. It hurts me to see you like this- thin and shivering in the cold. Please… fly with me today?” When Toothless didn’t answer, he bargained, “if not then, how’s sunset tomorrow?” Desperate, he kept begging, “Please. If you do, and you fall again, I’ll never ask you again.”

  Toothless had hesitated, then nodded, finally giving in and agreeing.

  “See you tomorrow.”


End file.
